The Barn ToolBox

Barn Construction Resource Center

Chicken Coop Construction

Chicken Coop is a structure that provides chickens with shelter, protection
from predators, place to roost, feed and to lay eggs. Therefore, when
building a coop, one must consider the proper building size, good design and
preferably easy access to nesting boxes. On this page, I will show images,
details & even drawings of the coop I have designed and built for myself.

I had built this Coop using some leftovers from my other projects.
That's why you see big door hinges, Plexiglas installed inside of doors
(figured more light won't hurt) and few other things.

To build this coop, I have used pressure treated 4x4 posts, regular framing
lumber, 3/4" plywood floor, white pine T&G barn siding and 30 year asphalt
shingles (I had few bundles left from replacing roofing on my house).

Originally, when I designed this coop, I was planning to accommodate only (8)
chickens and to have a small storage room on one end of this coop for feed
storage (as you can see from images below). Total size of this building is
4'x8' (outside measurements). Coop area is about 4'x6' and storage area is
about 4'x2'. If you are planning to have more chickens, simply remove
partition or install access door into storage room and you'll have full 4'x8'
coop area that should be able to house anywhere from 12-16 chickens.

Images of Nesting Box

Images of Coop Interior

Coop Construction Recommendations

Each chicken will require anywhere from 3-4 sq.f. of space inside
of coop if that's where they will spend most of the time. This means that 4'x8' coop should be able to accommodate 10-12
chickens. If you have a good size run and if coop is used primarily for
egg laying and perching, 2 sq.f. of space per each chicken should be enough.

Good size for nesting box is 12"x12" and anywhere
from 12" to 16" high

Build your nesting box entrance a little smaller for a
"cave-like" experience. In my opinion, 9"x10" entrance is about perfect.

Perch should provide at least 10" of space per each chicken (8
chickens will require 80" long perch). I built my perch out of regular 2x4
board.

Provide enough of ventilation (I put functional windows in
front & drop down door in the back of my coop for cross ventilation)

When building the run for your chickens, figure 10 sq.f. of
run space per each chicken (or more if space is not an issue)

If you don't have time or resources to build this kind of coop, you can now
purchase this Chicken Coop from Keystone Barns. Visit Keystone Chicken
Coops to get a price, etc.